The body overseeing the Gore country music festival will receive $60,000 in three years of "sliding scale" funding from Community Trust South, after which it is hoped to become self-sustaining.
The Tussock Country Music Festival, initiated by the New Zealand Country Music Festival Trust (NZCMFT), was launched in Gore last week.
Under the initiative, all events, including the MLT Gold Guitar Music Awards, New Zealand Country Music Awards and the McDonough Contracting Gore Truck Show, that take place around Labour Weekend would be under the umbrella and branding of the festival, NZCMFT Jeff Rea said.
Community Trust South general manager Jackie Flutey said the NZCMFT would be funded $30,000 in 2020, $20,000 in 2021 and $10,000 in 2022.
"The expectation is, going forward, they will be able to secure additional money in place for the future."
Mr Rea said it gave the festival "three years so we can try and get this off the ground and be somewhat self-sustaining".
"All the committees and the stakeholders and sponsors in the events that happen at the moment will still run exactly the same but the overarching trust will manage the brand of Tussock Country New Zealand’s Country Music Festival.
"The role of that trust will be governance over everybody and support really, and co-ordination of artists, venues and volunteers."
Mr Rea said recent surveys had showed how the six-day country music event could grow.
"One of the new events will be aimed at a younger demographic we have identified as part of what’s missing in events we have historically run.
"We know in terms of what they’re listening to, there’s a lot of young people listening to new country music which isn’t played predominantly on New Zealand radio — they’re going online."
Historically, the Gold Guitar started off with smaller events at the beginning of the week and ended with the most-supported Gold Guitar Music Awards senior finals.
The new festival will have larger events throughout the extended time.
The Gore District Council had helped by providing a staff member who was skilled in events, he said.
"Our council-funded person has had an awful lot of experience in comms and marketing and also pulling events like this into a more focused and co-ordinated space, so we’ve leaned on her a lot.
"A lot of the things ... like the Gold Guitar Awards and the trucking show, a lot of these things, they aren’t broken."
Another area they would take over was the allocation of volunteers to different events during the nine-day festival.
"When you add up the voluntary hours of all events [during the current six days] it’s 100,000 voluntary hours.
"We’re going to be a bit more focused managing, valuing them and they will be recognised ... We all need a pat on the back."
